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Lunar Eclipse Beach Walk

This was one of a few decent shots that I took during the lunar eclipse on Feb 20 2008. Half an hour into the show, the moon was completely covered in dark clouds. I guess I’ll have to wait for 2010 to try again.

This image came from a single RAW exposure. I didn’t have to cut and paste the moon from another image. The base exposure was taken for the moon. The foregrounds were a little dark, so I bumped the same RAW file with +1 stop, then blended it with the base exposure. I also tweaked the moon’s tone curve slightly via Adobe Lightroom.

Most lunar eclipse photos I saw focused on just the red moon on a black background. I wanted my lunar eclipse shot to have more background context to provide some story telling and a sense of scale of how big the moon appeared. As soon as I saw the couple on the beach watching the giant moon rising over the mountain range, I knew that I had to work fast to include them in the frame before all the available light disappeared. I was hoping for some colors on the evening sky, but dark clouds blanketed the horizon behind me. I ended up using day light white balance to give the image a cooler blue tone.

The tower in the background is UCSB Storke Tower. UCSB students and alumni might recognize those Isla Vista houses on DP.

I_m envious two fold in regard to this photo.
1. I missed the eclipse due to fog here in SF
2. I instantly recognized Storke Tower and am now thinking how I_d like to get back down to Santa Barbara for a bit.